How to Get Your First Sales: Growing Income as a Creator

Whether you're a YouTuber, a streamer, a podcaster, an artist, or any other type of creative entrepreneur, launching an online store is a great way to connect with your fans and boost your revenue. After helping tens of thousands of creators succeed, here are the two most important steps for a successful shop launch:

• Step 1: Make sure your audience knows this new project is important to you
• Step 2: Celebrate and show love to your early buyers

Let’s break down each one and why they matter.

Step 1: Make sure your audience knows this new project is important to you

While high-quality products and fair pricing are important, the #1 reason your community will buy from you is to support you as a creator. When your community understands this new release is something you care about and is an important next chapter in your offerings as a creator, they’ll be far more likely to buy. Here are five quick ways you can get that message across:

🤔 Decide on a collection

Make sure you’re set up for success by first deciding whether an “always-on”, drop-style, or hybrid strategy is for you. Lean into a specific marquee item (like this keychain drop from chocoandpancake, plushie from PointCrow, or matte black wallet from MKBHD) or use Collections to build around a theme (like Petty Couture from Charlotte Dobre or Between Two Buns from MeatMommy). Choosing a focus that will uniquely resonate with your community is a great way to capture your community’s attention and make promotion easier from the start.

📦 Order samples of your products

If you haven’t taken the time to order your own product and make sure you love it, can you expect your community to place an order? Sample orders can be used to review quality (so you really feel comfortable vouching for a product and putting your name behind it), for custom photography, and for your launch announcement video!

If you have friends that are creators as well, you can also send them a free sample to let them know you appreciate their support and see if they’re willing to shout you out on their socials.‍

Pro tip: Sometimes something funny or exciting will happen unexpectedly in your community that’s worthy of commemorating. When that happens, feel free to jump on the opportunity and just get a product up quickly to capture the moment!

⏱️ Build hype in advance of your launch

Schedule your launch a few days in advance of the actual release so you can tease what’s coming and build hype.

Fourthwall makes it easy to set up a coming soon page with a countdown timer and email collection, so you’ll have something official to link to and your supporters can be sure they’ll be the first to know when you launch.

Want to get your community refreshing the page until the moment your drop goes live? Anticipation is key. Use a countdown timer like evanf1997, and give supporters a taste of what’s coming with teaser content like close-up shots, cryptic tweets, or sneak peek videos on your socials and content channels. Check out these examples from TMG Studios, AnthonyZ, and FitMC.

🧢 Wear your products in your announcement videos and posts

When you wear a product that you designed, it shows your audience that you’re proud of your creation. Showcasing your work is a major driver of sales success. One of our favorite examples of this is how Joe Santagato of The Basement Yard releases regular videos that highlight new products while seamlessly connecting them to the lore of his channel and community.

Don’t be afraid to get creative and have fun with your promos, like freestyle creator Harry Mack did with this Black Friday special or this limited-time bundle offer.

🤩 Use beautiful imagery to showcase your shop

Eye-catching graphics are an important part of any effective promotional strategy, and you don’t need much to create something special. Use free tools like Canva to easily create assets yourself, or hire a designer to help you. Teasing your homepage is a super easy way to quickly spin up a promo graphic that feels polished and on brand. We love this simple but slick example from elysamelon.

Photo and video are also great tools when promoting your shop. NYC-based fashion collective L’Agence organized a simple photoshoot with friends without breaking the bank and instantly elevated the vibe of their launch. Hype reels like these examples from eeveenara and ATL Reign are also great for engagement and add a personal touch to your marketing efforts.

Step 2: Celebrate and show love to your early buyers

The second step to a successful launch is celebrating and rewarding the people who support you – especially the early adopters. Knowing that you’ll see their purchase and shout them out can be a massive motivator for fans, and can significantly increase your sales in turn. Here are three quick ways to show love to your buyers without a major time commitment:

💌 Send your fans love

When your product first launches, be sure to show your appreciation to your initial buyers. This can be in the form of:

• Sending personalized “thank you” videos using the Fourthwall app
• Enabling stream alerts and shouting out buyers in real time
• Adding “shoutout” credits at the end of your YouTube video or podcast

🎁 Generate hype with giveaways

Giveaways are one of the best ways to get your audience excited about your drop – not to mention they’re excellent for engagement. With Fourthwall, it’s easy and fun to run giveaways via unique links, limited-time promo codes, and Twitch Gifting.

Fourthwall Partner Jenntacles saw a 30%+ increase in sales after enabling Twitch Gifting. WolfyTheWitch used giveaway links to celebrate hitting the 100 order milestone with their community.

✅ Don’t forget the basics

Your community can’t buy your products if they don’t know they exist, so promote your shop across all of the places where they support you.

• Highlight your new collection at the top of your homepage and add an announcement bar to promote any limited-time sales.
• Prominently feature a link to your shop in your social bios, About sections, video descriptions, overlays, panels, and link in bio pages. This will ensure your community can’t miss your shop and can easily navigate to it from any channel.